Monday’s Mix

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award­-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Labour Pains 2. Mack’s Criminal Law Blog 3. Legal Post Blog 4. Canadian Combat Sports Law Blog 5. Pension & Benefits Law

Labour Pains
Top Three Cases of Importance to Ontario Employment Law – 2020 Edition

Twenty. Twenty. The year of 366 days, countless regulations and public health measures, myriad challenges and changes, but no Olympic games, and very few judicial decisions. Since 2012, I have posted what I consider to be the “Top Five Cases of Importance to Ontario Employment Law:” …

Mack’s Criminal Law Blog
MCL Nugget: MRS ONCA

Was the jury charge “overlong and needlessly complicated” in a manner that impacted the fairness of the trial [para 4]? Was the jury charge “excessively long and so laden with unnecessary information” that it diverted the jury’s attention in the manner discussed in R v Rodgerson, 2015 SCC 38 at paras 50-52. …

Legal Post Blog
Howard Levitt: Why employment contracts are now being rewritten all over the country

The most dramatic and fundamental change to employment law in 2020 is the unenforceability of longstanding employment contracts. Virtually no employment contracts from early 2020, either limiting dismissal damages or stipulating that employees will forfeit remuneration (such as bonuses, commissions, pension vesting, etc.) that would have accrued during the period of notice following their dismissal are enforceable any longer. …

Canadian Combat Sports Law Blog
Physician Reviews and Analyzes All Choke Submissions in UFC History

Dr. Samuel Stellpflug, physician and BJJ blackbelt who has authored numerous peer reviewed articles addressing strangles in combative sports, has just published his latest paper in which he reviews all submission finishes via strangulation in UFC history. In the paper, titled Analysis of the fight-ending chokes in the history of the UFC mixed martial arts …

Pension & Benefits Law
WSIB and OCEU complete first-ever SEPP to JSPP conversion in Canada

With current market conditions and a low interest rate environment creating sustainability-related concerns for sponsors of defined benefit (“DB”) pension plans, the “de-risking” of pension plans has been top of mind for many pension plan sponsors. For public sector pension plans sponsored by a single employer (and other prescribed plans) in Ontario, there is an opportunity to reduce cash flow and balance sheet volatility in respect of DB pension liabilities through converting into a jointly sponsored pension plan. …

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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.